What we Offer
Stargazer Elementary is an educational program designed to supplement homeschooling and other alternative educational paths. Our classroom is prepared to support meaningful work, real responsibility, and the balance between independence and interdependence.
“The liberty of the child should have as its limit the collective interest of the group.”
Our initially small cohort allows for close observation, individual guidance, and attuned support. We are committed to the freedom and discipline Montessori education requires: slowing down, observing carefully, and treating children with enthusiasm and deep respect. At Stargazer we assist your child in the big work of self creation by connecting them to the environment and their own best work.
Mission Statement
We aim to create a decolonized, anti racist, anti biased space that connects learners to the world around them with thoughtfulness, compassion and joy. We promote skillful adaptation, meaningful connection to work, and community building by meeting children where they are with enthusiasm, grace, and love. At Stargazer Montessori we embrace your learners’ childhood as a process and see them for all of their potentiality with the intent to assist them in the creation of the self.
Meet your Guides:
Olive Avina (Co-Founder)
Olive Avina holds a Diploma in 6-12 from SIMS in Mesa Arizona and an Adolescent Masters from SMTC in Sydney Australia. They Co-founded Stargazer after finding their passion in creating spaces that nurture resilience, and center hard work and skillful adaptation. They believe that work builds the individual and that to truly grow into themselves children deserve the opportunity to fully explore their connection to work and themselves. They are passionate about creating equitable, safe, and appropriate environments for learning, work, and cooperation to occur spontaneously.
Kai Mercury (Co-Founder)
After a decade spent working in early childhood education, Kai completed their AMI Elementary diploma at Montessori Northwest. Trained under Elise Huneke-Stone and influenced by the steady, principled guidance of her own former teacher Chris Trostel, Kai’s work is grounded in Montessori’s core directive: follow the child and serve their potential.
In addition to their AMI Elementary diploma, Kai holds an undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’s degree in education. She brings a commitment to maintaining high-fidelity Montessori that is academically rigorous and deeply humane.
Outside the classroom, Kai enjoys using their hands to craft and care for beautiful practical objects, pouring their heart into a variety of artistic outlets, and applying their mind to big questions from physics to philosophy with their partner. They share their home with a talkative German Shepherd named Lola - when she acquiesces to the odd human custom of living indoors.
Kai’s connection to Montessori began in Juneau, Alaska, when they entered first grade at Montessori Borealis. Then a daring experiment in it’s infancy, it soon became a thriving hub of public Montessori education. Kai grew up not only within it but fiercely protective of it — defending her school to skeptics and even testifying before the school board in sixth grade.